Solar Orbiter Unveils First-Ever Views Of Sun's Poles

A space footage has revealed to the world the first-ever video and images of the Sun's south pole. The visuals were sent out by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a Sun-observing probe developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with NASA, by tilting its orbit to an angle of 17 degrees from the Sun's equator. The video shows the Sun's flaring million-degree Celsius southern atmosphere with darker, but cooler clouds of gas.

The Sun has inner layers that rotate at different speeds and twists and tangles the magnetic field during its active stage. This is the phase of intense solar activity when the Sun flips its magnetic poles roughly every 11 years and emits solar storm particles toward Earth. These particles are hazardous to the communication satellites and power grids of the Earth, though they can also cause beautiful auroras in the sky. During its quiet time, the Sun emits less violent explosions, and its magnetic field becomes more ordered.

🌞 See the Sun from a whole new angle.

For the first time, our Solar Orbiter mission has captured close-up images of the Sun’s mysterious poles, regions long hidden from our view.

In 2025, Solar Orbiter gave us a first-ever look at the Sun’s south pole.

Remarkably, it… pic.twitter.com/EhyYxtDyaR

— European Space Agency (@esa) June 11, 2025

These closest-ever images were captured by three instruments, PHI, EUI, and SPICE, which also filmed the movements of chemical elements at different layers of the Sun. They help the scientists to explore the mechanism behind the magnetic field reversal and develop a computer model of the Sun to predict the space weather, enhancing understanding of the gravity and impact of intense solar storms.